A Misplaced Wormtail
by pun33t.n
Summary: "Is that . . . Is that a rat, Lily?" Remus asked slowly. "Oh.' She said, holding the squirming rat in her hands... 'Someone must have lost it.' She said cheerfully."Funny. We seemed to have lost Peter too.' James muttered.


**Just a random one-shot about Lily, the Marauders and a rat that turned out not to belong to Frank Longbottom. My sister unwittingly gave me the idea. Although I hate Peter with a passion, I'm not about to exclude him from a Marauder fic. He was one of them, after all. Back then. Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, or anything you recognise from the series. I don't own Harry Potter. Period.**

"Honestly Moony." Sirius Black's voice said carelessly from the direction of the portrait hole,  
>The Fat Lay swung open completely, revealing three of the Marauders. They had been in the library, where Remus had dragged them to for a bit if studying for their upcoming OWLs, only resulting in a war of throwing things at one another between Sirius and James, a lot of ink stains and a distracted Remus, ending in Madam Pince chasing them out of the library, screaming about the 'Devil's spawn.'<p>

"Peter's a big boy. You don't need to babysit him." Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm aware of that, Sirius.' Remus said tiredly, rubbing his eyes and hitching his bag up higher on his shoulder. 'It's just that he asked me for help on understanding some Charms notes, and then he doesn't turn up.'

As they walked towards the chairs by the fireplace, a few people turned to greet them, and a few girls tittered and giggled at the sight of the three ruffled boys. Sirius barely acknowledged them, sauntering over to one of the chairs and dropping into it with a tired huff. James smiled at a few people, but unusually stayed quiet and instead just fell into a chair opposite Sirius. Remus politely said hello to a few people, before positively collapsing into the seat next to Sirius.

"I'm bloody exhausted.' James said, slumping in his chair and closing his eyes.

"You're telling me." Sirius said.

"You ought to get some sleep." Remus said sympathetically.

"Us! You're the one who should be resting!" James said, yanking the book Remus had gotten out to read out of his hands. Ignoring Remus' indignant 'Hey!", James went on. "Look, I know you want to do well, but you're gonna kill yourself at this rate!"

"I already spent half of the day sleeping in the hospital wing, James! I don't need to sleep, I need to study!"

Sirius looked at Remus, a slightly annoyed look marring his haughty features. "Mate, you'll do fine. Brilliantly, as a matter of fact.' Seeing Remus about to protest, he added 'Look, how about we make a trip to the kitchens to get you some chocolate, if you go on up and sleep.'

A small smile formed on Remus' face. 'Yeah, alright. Thanks." He said gratefully.

"Don't mention it." Sirius said offhandedly, raising his hand to clap Remus on the shoulder before stopping himself. Remus raised his eyebrows at the weird action, to which Sirius replied 'If I went through with that, I think I'd break your shoulder.'

Remus gave a small snort. "Right, Right. I'm going. No need to make remarks about how fragile and weak I am." He muttered.

Sirius rolled his eyes, and gave Remus a gentle shove. "Go on then."

"Oi Prongs!" He said when he turned around and realised James wasn't listening.

"What?" James asked distractedly, peering at something behind Sirius.

"We're going to the kitchens. Get your cloak."

When this elicited no response from his best friend, Sirius turned to see what James was looking at so intently, his own eyebrows pulling together. Realisation dawned on his handsome face, and he turned back towards James. 'Look-,' he started.

"He already is.' Remus interjected with a snort.

Sirius ignored him. "I know you suddenly think Evans is an extremely fit girl,' he said in a bored tone that suggested he did not share James' point of view on the matter. 'But there's no need to gawk. I didn't even know you liked her that much. Don't get all sappy on me now. . .' he trailed off, rolling his eyes.

"No." James said, his hazel eyes suddenly going wide as he leant forward and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "No, it's not that. It's . . . I just saw. . ."

Intrigued, Remus also opened his eyes to look curiously at James, and the over to where Lily Evans was sitting on an armchair alone, with her back to them.

Suddenly, James stood up. "Come with me." He said, and started walking over to where Lily Evans was.

Sirius and Remus glanced at one another, Sirius raising his eyebrow and Remus shrugging. Sirius started to follow James, and Remus grudgingly got up to follow them.

They came to a stop behind Lily, who did not seem to notice their presence.

"Prongs, what're you-'

But James held up a hand to silence them. He was looking over Lily's shoulder intently.

Sirius looked over her shoulder too, a little bewildered. She had her books spread out on the table in front of her, but didn't seem to be actually doing any work. Instead she was playing with something in her lap.

"Oh, honestly. Hold still!" They heard her say.

James' face had suddenly paled a little, and his mouth was open in disbelief, making him look like a gaping fish.

"What?" Sirius asked, before seeing what was in her lap.

"Uh, what're you gaping like idiots at?" Remus asked, before he too saw it. The three of them stood there, not sure whether to be worried, horrified or amused.

Lily, finally feeling the gazes boring holes into the back of her head, turned. Her green eyes widened in bewilderment. "Remus!" she said surprised, then added 'Potter. Black' a little reluctantly.

Remus recovered a little. "Uh, Lily. Hi." He said.

"I thought you went home to visit your mother again? How is she? Better, I hope, as you're back earlier than usual.' She observed. She hadn't seen her friend since earlier the day before, when he told her about his mother's poor health once again.

"Yes, well. Things are much better and easier this year." Remus replied to her. She saw his gaze flick for about a millisecond towards his two best friends. She looked at them too. They seemed to be very unusually quiet, she noted. Although she really didn't like the arrogant pair, she had discovered recently that there were times that they could be decent and bearable.

Until they started insulting Sev, that is.

All three boys looked oddly ruffled and rather tired too. Potter was standing there with his arms crossed loosely over his chest, his shirt and forearms oddly splattered with ink. His black and impossibly mussed up hair stuck up as usual. His hazel eyes were widened behind the lenses of his glasses, and had that constant hint of mischief in them. He also seemed to have a few random little scratches, cuts and scars here and there that she had never noticed before.

Black stood there next to him, one of his hands in his pocket. He too, she saw, had ink spots all over him. She hadn't had the impression that either of them picked up a quill outside of class, let alone studied. Though both of them did get their homework done and top marks, so she supposed it made sense. Black seemed to be trying to stop himself from laughing, amusement glinting in his eyes. His dark hair fell into his handsome face as he looked onto the scene. She watched as he nudged Potter and barely moved his lips to whisper something. Suddenly, both Potter and Black were smirking slightly in that insufferable way of theirs and holding back laughter.

Remus stood clutching the strap of his bag, looking a little amused and worried. She noted that he, like the other two, also had ink on him. He brushed his straw coloured hair away from his face, and fiddled with his tie. All three boys seemed to look similarly exhausted, she observed, Remus more so that the other two. Black and Remus also had cuts and little scars all over the exposed skin of their arms, hands and necks, like Potter. While momentarily wondering what dangerous thing they had been doing to get those, a part of her brain was reluctantly registering that she saw what those silly girls went on about, really, when they spoke (or gushed sickeningly) of how good-looking the three of the Marauders were. Unwilling to accept this observation, she pushed it out of her mind.

Suddenly, she looked away from the three and looked back down at her lap.

"No, don't. Oh, stop it!" She muttered.

"Is that . . . Is that a rat, Lily?" Remus asked slowly.

"Oh.' She said, holding the squirming rat in her hands. 'I found this rat in a corridor on the third-floor on my way up from dinner earlier. Someone must have lost it.' She said cheerfully. 'He's quite cuddly.'

"Funny. We seemed to have lost Peter too.' James muttered. Remus stepped on his foot, making him yelp and hop on the spot, and Lily stare at him.

She glanced down for a second at the squealing rat, and looked back up to see the three of them look alarmed and amused all at once, and hear Remus say '- could be just any rat.'

This didn't make much sense to Lily, and her eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

"Yes. Fairly cuddly.' Potter remarked, staring at the rat. "third floor corridor, Evans?' he continued. 'Uh, where about?"

Still confused, Lily replied 'It was scuttling around this statue. You know,' she said as she saw them look at one another 'the one-eyed witch.'

At hearing this, Black muttered 'Oh, Merlin.' Potter face palmed, and Remus pinched the bridge of his nose.

"He won't stop squirming and trying to run off.' She said, looking bemusedly down at the rat.

Potter's smirk grew bigger, and he gave a snort of laughter.

"Not letting him go, Evans?" Black asked somewhat cockily, and looked as if he would laugh any second. What was so funny about this situation, she couldn't fathom.

"Well, poor little guy's lost.' She said. She brought the little animal up to her chest and cuddled it.

Potter suddenly didn't look amused anymore. "Poor little guy, my ass.' She heard him mutter before he said, 'Uh, Evans. I would not do that if I were you."

Black, on the other hand, had suddenly seemed to have stopped resisting his laughter. He laughed uproariously, grabbing hold of Potter's shoulder, who gave him an irritated look. She had a feeling that in a way, Black was laughing at Potter's reaction, which was another thing she didn't understand. "Oh god' he choked out. 'Oh, Merlin's p-pants." He gasped as his laughter subsided but he continued to snicker.

Remus seemed to be fighting a laugh. His expression changed rapidly and comically as he turned his gaze up towards the ceiling. He would have a huge smirk-like grin (he spent too much time with those two smirking idiots) one second, to a straight face that barely concealed his laughter the next.

"What?" She asked, completely bewildered.

She watched as Remus turned away, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Black continued to bend over laughing; his hand still on Potter's shoulder, and Potter ran his hands through his hair, and then covered his face.

"Honestly, it's just a rat!" Lily said. Potter, Black's and Remus' reaction baffled her, and they were attracting the attention of the rest of the Gryffindors in the common room, who were looking over curiously.

At this, even Potter began snorting with laughter.

"WHAT?" She said forcefully, annoyed and confused.

"N-n-nothing Lily. The rat, it's um, Frank's" Remus said through his laughter.

"Frank?" She didn't know Frank had a rat. And why was it so hilarious?

"Yeah. Why don't you, uh' Remus said, attempting to stop laughing, but it seemed every time he looked at the rat that was still in her hands as she cuddled him, he couldn't seem to help himself. 'Give it to me, and we'll go give it to him.'

"Oh, sure." She smiled at him, but she was still wondering what was so funny. It was so bloody confusing.

She put the rat in her lap as she gathered her books, preparing to go up to her dormitory.

"So,' she said as she got up to leave. 'Where's Peter?" she asked in mild curiosity. The boy was rarely ever seen without one of the other 'Marauders'.

This seemed to have been a mistake. All three boys literally collapsed on the floor, laughing uncontrollably. She stared at them, aghast. Potter and Black maybe, but Remus too? And what was so funny?

"Fine." She said, irritated. "Fine. Here's the rat. I'm leaving."

This had no affect whatsoever on the three rolling idiots, however. Huffing, Lily put the rat onto the chair and stomped away, muttering about imbeciles who made no sense as she went.

As she reached the staircase, she looked back over her shoulder, and saw that the trio of laughing prats were still cracking up, and looked unlikely to resurface anytime soon.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Lily sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, eating breakfast and happily chatting to Alice. She looked round as Peter Pettigrew passed her to join Potter, Black and Remus a few seats away along the table. As she saw him seat himself next to Black and eat, she thought of the previous night.<p>

She was still curious, irritated and incredibly confused about what all that laughter had been about. She saw Potter greet Peter with a slight smirk, then his gaze flick towards her direction accompanied with a little snort. Not wanting to be caught looking at the four and get accused of becoming a 'Marauder fan girl', she hurriedly looked away. What on earth had that been about?

"Oh, Frank?" she said, looking to change the subject she was thinking about.

"Yes, Lily?" Frank asked from his seat next to Alice.

"Did Remus give you your rat? I found it in a corridor last night." Her smile faded a little as she took in his blank expression.

"My rat?" He asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes. Did Remus give it to you?" She asked slowly. She unconsciously registered that a group walked past her, leaving breakfast, but she kept her focus on Frank.

"Lily,' He said slowly, looking confused. 'I don't have a rat."

Wait, what? "You don't?" She asked.

"Uh, no." He said. Alice was looking confused too.

"But Remus said. . . " Lily said, and then trailed off. She looked down the table where the four boys had been sitting.

Only to find four empty seats.

Cursing, she whipped her head around towards the doors to the Great Hall, eyes narrowed.

The four Marauders were walking away, nearly out of the Great Hall, shoulders clearly shaking with laughter.

What the heck?

**So, what did you think? Horrible? Alright? Good? Please let me know, and if you liked it, maybe ideas for more Marauder one-shots? Please review!**


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